Dirty tobacco, Ryan Zinke and Abe Lincoln on labor

I was disappointed that Tammy Lacey, the superintendent of our public schools, and the other four members of the Board of Health voted to provide free access to tobacco products for all the children of our community.

The BOH, in establishing rules stating smoking shelters can only be accessed from outside and that such access must be open at all times the shelter is available for use, has given our children easy access to thousands of cigarette snipes.

Maybe the school district should just give cigarettes out to our children at school to save them from other risks associated with entering unsafe and unsecured smoking shelters.

— Heather McDavey,

Great Falls

Good for Zinke

I want to thank Rep. Ryan Zinke for his leadership in Congress, especially his vast knowledge and understanding of Middle East issues.

With a president like Barack Obama, who seems to be absent and is unwilling to develop a strategy, we need leaders like Zinke to dissect the incursion of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and deliver a cogent message to those of us here in Montana. Zinke has done a great job of that because he spent many years in Iraq and the surrounding countries, leading our special forces troops during a time of war. It’s refreshing to know that he has America’s security as his top priority, keeping us safe at home and insuring the future of our children, grandchildren and nation.

I’m always troubled when the haters continually bash him as he stands up and takes the flak for all Montanans. But he wanted the job, so I have no doubt he can answer their shrill voices and continue to represent all Montanans.

The columnist (Pat Rosenleaf on June 7) chose to use a left-leaning quote from a website: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/abrahamlin395631.html, “Labor is prior to, and independent, of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration.”

According to Jim Cox in paraphrasing several authors, “The labor theory of value (alluded to in the columnist’s selection) is the bedrock basis of Marxist or socialist economic theory. Disagreements between the socialist theory and that of the free marketeer can ultimately be traced back to the question of the theory of value. The labor theory of value states that all value is a result of human labor. The theory has a certain initial plausibility since laboring does commonly result in additional value. However, a closer brief analysis reveals the obvious errors in such a theory ... the correct theory of value is that value is subjective. The subjective theory of value concludes that goods have no inherent value, that goods are valuable only to the degree that there is a valuer desiring the good.

“In short, the whole of socialist economic theory is derived from the mistaken labor theory of value. It collapses for lack of a base; the whole of free-market economic theory is derived from the solid base of the valid subjective theory of value.”